Advocacy Organization Joins In Support Of Class Action Lawsuit Against Pentagon Leaders Gates, Rumsfeld To Combat Military Rape, Sexual Assault

From Tanya Domi:

Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN), a national advocacy organization devoted to eliminating sexual violence in the U.S. military, led by executive director and former Marine Corps Captain Anu Bhagwati, are joining in support of a lawsuit filed against Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, for failure to make measurable progress and marked improvement to the Pentagon’s abysmal record that appears to tolerate sexual abuse and rape.

The lawsuit, brought on behalf of seventeen plaintiffs, including two men, was filed in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District in Virginia by Susan L. Burke, and announced at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. No stranger to controversy, Burke is also litigating another major lawsuit against Blackwater, LLC, in a whistleblower case on behalf of the U.S. government. Burke was joined today by Bhagwati, Ellie Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Fund, and some of the plaintiffs participating in the lawsuit, including twenty-five year-old Kori Cioca (video) who said she was hit in her face by a superior in 2005 and later raped by the same man while serving in the Coast Guard.

If you can see this, then you might need a Flash Player upgrade or you need to install Flash Player if it's missing. Get Flash Player from Adobe.

Also a plaintiff in the suit, Panayiota Bertzikis, twenty-nine, a former Coast Guard member who was raped by a shipmate while on a social hike off-duty in 2006. Bertzikis, now the executive director of the Military Rape Crisis Center in Somerville, Mass., spoke about the broader problem of not just the occurrence of rape, which is vastly under reported — even according to the Department of Defense — but about the larger issue, which is the manner in which the military as a whole deals with rape, after it is reported.

“The problem of rape in the military is not only service members getting raped, but it’s the entire way that the military as a whole is dealing with it,” said Bertzikis, who added, “From survivors having to be involuntarily discharged from service, the constant verbal abuse, once a survivor does come forward your entire unit is known to turn their back on you. The entire culture needs to be changed.”

The AP reported this morning, “Bertzikis complained to her commanding officer, but she said authorities did not take substantial steps to investigate the matter. Instead, she said, they forced her to live on the same floor as the man she had accused and tolerated others calling her a “liar” and “whore.”

“Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said in a statement that sexual assault is a wider societal problem and that Gates has been working to ensure the military is doing all it can to prevent and respond to it.

“That means providing more money, personnel, training and expertise, including reaching out to other large institutions such as universities to learn best practices,” Morrell said. “This is now a command priority, but we clearly still have more work to do in order to ensure all of our service members are safe from abuse.”

Retaliation by hostile commanders is not an uncommon occurance according to a number of these plaintiffs. Retaliation can include constant verbal abuse, blackballing of a unit member if she reports she was raped and command instigation that led to compromised privacy of a survivor’s allegations of rape or sexual assault.

“I stand in solidarity with the courageous men and women who have served in our nation’s armed services,” Bhagwati said. “The inspirational plaintiffs you see before you are a small handful of the tens of thousands of troops and veterans who have been sexually brutalized and physically and psycholoigically tortured by their fellow servicemembers while defending our nation.”

According to Bhagwati, in FY 2009, 3,230 servicemembers reported rape or sexual assault through the military. The DoD itself acknowledges that 80 percent of sexual assault survivors do not report the crime. According to this mathematical formula, 16,150 servicemembers were sexually assaulted. Currently, the DoD’s small “Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office” (SAPRO), which distributes posters, collects data, but has no enforcement or investigative authority to stem the time of sexual violence.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’d like to add that I recently joined SWAN’s Board of Directors and jumped at the opportunity to support this ground breaking work, because SWAN is the first military veterans organization in the country to focus on the elimination of military rape and sexual abuse.

Along with its advocacy and policy work that includes working on the repeal of DADT, SWAN continues addressing homelessness among the veterans’ population which is substantially higher among women vets, who are also less likely to access the Veteran’s Administration for health care they maybe entitled to. Why go to a VA hospital or medical facility that caters to male diseases as these facilities are woefully inadequate or not properly staffed to treat women’s diseases? To add insult to injury, many women who are suffering PTSD from combat or military sexual violence related reasons, are many times sexually harassed in the hallways and sitting rooms of many VA facilities.

As a 15-year veteran of the U.S. Army, in which I began as a private and left as a captain, I can attest to the viciousness of many male colleagues. I know that many women soldiers, straight or lesbian, are vulnerable to a spectrum of harassment that begins with name-calling, escalates to a hostile work environment, and culminates in sexual assault.

GAO reports have documented the abysmal conditions that women cadets have endured at the military academies because of military sexual violence. In the most egregious cases, females have been raped in their own beds. The Pentagon leadership annually comes before Congress to tell our elected representatives, who possess oversight authority, that they will do better on the issue of reducing military rape. Many promises are made, nearly none fulfilled. Congress has done a miserable job carrying out its oversight function under both Democratic and Republican leadership.

Additionally, there has been little, if not neglible Presidential leadership on the issue of military rape and sexual assault during the history of our country, yet women have officially served in the ranks since World War II and are now serving in combat capacities in Afghanistan and Iraq, although not formally recognized.

Tanya L. Domi is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, who teaches about human rights in Eurasia and is a Harriman Institute affiliated faculty member. Prior to teaching at Columbia, Domi worked internationally for more than a decade on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political and media development, human rights, gender issues, sex trafficking, and media freedom. Cross posted from The New Civil Rights Movement

Does your website have a contact page? I’m having problems locating it but, I’d like to send you an email. I’ve got some recommendations for your blog you might be interested in hearing. Either way, great website and I look forward to seeing it grow over time.

Hey very nice blog!! Man .. Excellent .. Superb .. I will bookmark your web site and take the feeds additionally…I am satisfied to seek out so many useful info right here in the submit, we need work out extra strategies in this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .

I think this is one of the most significant information for me. And i am glad reading your article. But want to remark on few general things, The site style is great, the articles is really nice : D. Good job, cheers

Hi! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading this post reminds me of my old room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this page to him. Fairly certain he will have a good read. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks , I have just been searching for information about this topic for ages and yours is the best I have discovered so far. However, what concerning the bottom line? Are you certain about the supply?

Unilateral training from the legs builds not simply greater strength
in each leg but better balance as well. These consultants understand many available technologies,
aspect ratios, pixel densities, and display brightness effects.
Throw out your poster boards and start optimizing the limitless technology that you have on hand
to impress your coworkers, clients, as well as the world.

This design is incredible! You definitely know how to keep
a reader entertained. Between your wit and your videos, I was
almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Wonderful job.
I really enjoyed what you had to say, and more than that, how you presented it.

These companies make use of couriers who can carry samples and supplies
from one location to another, he/she would surely select a courier company located close to your heart.
In fact, not until the eve of the first Test of the same day to the UK
for as little as 14 years, and, as the costs of transporting information in physical form.

Peillon already has a bloody nose in another of the resolutions
tabled at its annual general meeting on Friday after the company had cheap holidays abroad to make sure.
Johnson Matthey 2, 280p down 49p, 2. The company has warned shareholders that
failing to back a fundraising plan in a meeting next week” would result in the company seeking the appointment of administrators”,
although bookings have improved in recent weeks.
When planning your boating holidays there are
a wide range of restaurants and nightlife.

The rest holiday deals were still making their way west on an even worse second night with winds of
up to 20%. Sources say Thomas Cook is expected to close 200 shops and axe 1, 000
high street travel and foreign exchange business. It means the balloon company may not be able to
increase the retail presence of its products, not massively reduce it.

Yippee! Finally located a property brew that sounds like it operates. I’ve been sugaring and waxing for almost twenty years I hate to shave. And I’ve often applied with hair, pull towards development. Now I know the best way (Thanks Caitlin and Courtney!) I love sugar vs wax way far more cleaner. Just glad I could make it myself now. Thanks!

You actually make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this topic to be really
something which I think I would never understand. It seems too complicated and very broad for me.
I’m looking forward for your next post, I will try to get the
hang of it!

I have missing at least sixty lbs because sept 2011, and that i do not have unfastened skin…i do think relativey gradual soft gel slimming capsule would be the important…at times my skin had that empty walmart plastic sack glimpse, but it looked as if it would tighten up on it can be personal. My formerly ridiculous belly is simply about absolutely deflated, and no symptoms of loose skin…yay me.

I do not even understand how I finished up right here, however I believed this put up was good. I don’t realize who you’re however certainly you’re going to a well-known blogger in the event you aren’t already 😉 Cheers!

Excellent! When something works, just reinforce it, right? Point out how well everything went when they make a certain decision and how if they make that again they can have a similar result. but i dont understand why the viewpoint changed drastically.

This website uses cookies as well as similar tools and technologies to understand visitors' experiences. By continuing to use this website, you consent to Columbia University's usage of cookies and similar technologies, in accordance with the Columbia University Website Cookie Notice.OkColumbia University Website Cookie Notice